Embedding Amazon Previews on Your Website

Recently, I had to update my webpage to reflect a book release due out soon. I realised that I had forgotten completely how to make the book previews that I’d done for my other books, lols. So, good old Google came to the rescue. Then I thought that it might be useful for folks if I outlined the process of Embedding Amazon Book Previews into your website here. If you know all this already, then of course feel free to ignore me! The other benefit of sharing this is that, in writing it all out, it might actually embed in this brain of mine! (Miracles have been known to happen.)

Happily, unlike donating digital gifts (including ebooks), this feature works on both Amazon UK as well as Amazon US. Yay! (Sorry, but being in the UK, that’s one of my gripes, ha ha.)

Anyhooooo …

The first step

is to locate the sales page for your ebook.

The second step

is to locate the ‘Embed’ option. See the screenshot below:

The third step

is to click the ‘Embed’ button. You should see a dialogue box like this:

You will see that you have two options: One, copy and paste a URL into your post/onto your page; and, two, to embed a code into your post/page. This first option is the most straightforward; however, the second one proves much more rewarding.

To embed, then the fourth step

is to select the ‘Embed on your site (HTML)’ option. (See below.)

The fifth step

is to copy the embed code. (Ensure that you have the ‘Embed’ option selected as above.)

The sixth step

is to go to your blog/website editor. Now, I use WordPress, and am only conversant with that platform. So, if you use another platform, such as Blogger, etc., you’ll have to look up how to find the HTML editing bit. I show you how to do it in WordPress below.

Your screen will look like this:

The seventh step

is to click on the ‘Text’ tab (next to the ‘Visual’ tab), so that the HTML for your page/post shows. Paste the copied embed code where you want it. Then, to check how it looks, click on the ‘Visual’ tab again. (Don’t worry, if you’ve placed it incorrectly, you can move it in both the Visual and the Text areas until you have it displayed where you want it.)

[Quick Tip:

To aid you in finding where to paste the embed code once you’re in the ‘Text’ tab, then while in the ‘Visual’ tab, type in a word (such as the book title), and then hit return. This will give you an anchor to lock onto amidst all that HTML. For example, if I type in MOMENTS, and then hit return, what I see in the HTML (Text) area is:

<h1><span> MOMENTS </span></h1>

This shows me that I can place the HTML embed code below my book title to get the placement as in the screen shot below.]

That’s it, all done! Using HTML can feel daunting if you’re not used to it, but embedding opens up so many avenues for your website/blog. You can embed your YouTube videos with the same method too.

Below are some screen shots of how my webpage looks with the Amazon Previews of my books embedded …

I stumbled (such is my life, that’s the way I usually find out about these things) across this blog post today and it has been a revelation. No doubt there will be plenty out there who already know about this, but for those who don’t… Well worth a read

I’m on a WordPress platform, but self-hosted and the relevant page on the website has been constructed by a web designer, so I’ve got to pass it to him to deal with, but just the fact that it can be done was news to me. Thanks for sharing it, Harmony.

Thanks so much for sharing this and the excellent instructions. I didn’t know about this – I use Blogger and it was very easy to embed the codes for my books into the sidebar, I’ll share this on Facebook.

It’s possible to do that with other people’s books too (I was doing it when sharing reviews) but then I started having problems in Google, that was marking my site as spam and I got rid of everything including that, as I wasn’t sure what was causing the problem. It’s probably not that but I haven’t dared to try it since. Thanks!

I never even knew about this option! One more thing I’m going to be doing on my blog soon. (Eeep. The list is growing!) Thanks for a great post, Harmony, and you guys really need to check this one out!

Wonderful step by step screen shots, Harmony. This is another thing I’ve had on my to-do list for a while and have been neglecting. Seeing how quick and easy it is to do, I’m going to bump it higher. Thanks for an informative and helpful post. This is awesome!

Helpful tips, Harmony. Fortunately for me (as I’m sometimes challenged by technology) I use a theme designed for authors with a books section. The only think I need to do is add links to the purchase site(s). But I’m forever wanting to change the look of my website, so this will certain come in handy.

You know, Joan, I tried that theme, and I just didn’t like it. I think your site looks great, but I understand your desire to tinker with it. I think that’s why I didn’t like the theme; I play with my site too much.

Oh, great, Harmony. Thanks a lot!
I had no idea I could do such a thing. Interesting and useful at the same time.
I am on Blogger and I simply added the cover of my books on the side. When clicking on them, it takes you to the Amazon page of the book where you can read the reviews or buy the book.